John Myers
Trade classes divide poultry into different quality levels. Poultry includes ducks, chickens, guinea fowl, geese, quail, fattening pigeons, pheasants, and turkeys. Your meat will only be traded in Germany if it belongs to commercial class A or B. Commercial class A places the highest demands on the quality of poultry meat. If the meat only meets the minimum requirements, it is assigned to commercial class B. The Food Labeling Ordinance stipulates that the finished packaging of poultry must have a corresponding commercial class label. This guarantees the consumer the quality of the meat.
The minimum requirements for poultry meat to be classified as Grade B are:
- It must not show any traces of blood.
- It must not emit any foreign smell.
- It must be free of visible foreign matter, e.g. dirt.
- The entire body of the slaughtered animal must not have any protruding bones or bruises.
- Poultry meat offered as “fresh” must never have been frozen.
In order to meet the quality requirements of the highest commercial class A, slaughtered poultry must also meet other criteria:
- The breast must be fully developed and fleshy.
- The layer of fat on the poultry meat must be thin and evenly distributed (except for early fattening geese and soup hens).
- The breast and thighs of the poultry must not show bruises, damage, or discoloration.
- The meat must not have a freezer burn.
Poultry that is assigned to commercial class B does not have to meet the high-quality criteria of commercial class A. However, it is not sold as a whole animal. The body of class B slaughtered animal is dismantled into individual parts and only those body parts that meet the quality criteria of class A reach the German market.
Poultry meat is offered in different states
- as poultry parts such as breast fillet, thighs, wings, or halves
- Ready to cook in the form of chopped meat, schnitzel, or slices
- as durable goods and ready-to-eat products such as poultry sausage, smoked goose breast,
pies or offal
